How to Play

All you need to do to experience a quest is view the first clue. If the author is charging a fee, you will need to pay the fee before you can begin.

Follow the quest from clue to clue. You will need to view the clues in the order the author specifies. If the clue requires an answer, type the correct answer into the text box provided to move onto the next clue. If the clue does not require an answer, you can continue straight to the next clue.

If you come across a clue in the world for a quest that you're not currently playing, you can teleport to the quest's first clue (as long as that clue is still in the world and not back in the creator's inventory). Just click View on the clue, and then click Go on the webpage that appears.

You can track your progress and the progress of your competitors by clicking View Participant Progress from any clue.

Creating a Quest

First, purchase your Quest Kit under Playthings in Shop Central. Quest Kits are available in several different durations, from 24 hours to 2 weeks, and come with different numbers of clues (such as 10 or 20).

Once you buy a Quest Kit, it will appear in your My Things menu, along with submenus for each of the clues in the kit.

Now you're ready to create your quest!

• Choose Edit from the first clue's submenu, and fill out the web page that appears. You will be asked to enter: a title (the default title is the clue's number), clue text, and a url (optional). The url can point to a picture, or other supplementary material related to your clue. This is also where you set your permissions (who can view your clue?), answer field (do players have to answer a question to move on?), and fee (optional).
• If you choose to include an answer field, you will be directed to a second page. Here you will fill out the correct answer (you can enter more than one, separated by commas). You will also enter two messages: one for correct answers, and one for incorrect answers. The correct answer message should point to the location of the next clue. The incorrect answer message is usually something like "Sorry, please try again."
• Continue editing the rest of the clues in the same manner. Remember, although you can edit your clues in any order, people playing your quest will see the clues in numberical order.
• You can edit all your clues first and then drop them in their final locations, or you can drop as you go. No one will be able to read your clues as long as you remain in editing mode.
• Place a clue in the world by selecting "Take Out" from its My Things menu. You must place the first (number 1) clue before you will be able to place the others.
• When you're done editing and placing your clues, it's time to run your quest! (see below)

• Your quest doesn't need to use all the clues in the kit -- it can be as short as just one clue. However, the number of clues that the kit comes with is the max, and you can't mix and match clues from different Quest Kits.
• You can reposition and re-edit clues at any time, even after the quest has already started. Please exercise caution when making changes, as you may confuse people who are in the middle of your quest. You can IM all current players via their avatar names (accessible from the quest's View Progress page).
• Your Quest Kit will remain in Editing mode until you click Start. People who click to read your clues while you're editing will get a "Sorry, this quest is being edited" web page. They will not be able to read the clue itself.
• There are several different kinds of Quest Kit clues, including Message in a Bottle, Journal, Balloon, and Invisible. Invisible clues turn anything into part of your quest: drop an Invisible clue in front of a temple, and the temple becomes a clue in your quest. Each Quest Kit contains a fixed number of clues of the same type (for example, 10 Lockboxes). You don't have to use all the clues in your quest unless you want to.
• Please note that Quest Kits are NONREFUNDABLE, and cannot be given or auctioned.
• Your Author skill level determines which Quest Kits you can buy. If you raise your Author skill level, you will gain access to Quest Kits with longer durations.
• The number of active quests you can have running at one time is determined by your Fun Pass level. If you try to activate a quest beyond your limit, a system message will notify you that you've reached your limit. You can turn one of your active quests to Inactive (see Quest Modes below) by picking up all clues that are out in the world, or by clicking Clear Progress.
• Clues can skip a gap: if you drop clues 1-3 and then 5, the quest will still work. And again, you don't need to use all of the clues in the kit. The last clue you drop will automatically become the end of your quest.

Once you have edited your quest to your liking, and dropped the clues in their places, click Start to open it up to participants. The quest mode will change to Running.

Participants must begin from the first (number 1) clue, and must view clues in order. Once your quest has started, use the View Progress command in the Quest Kit's My Things menu to track where people are in the quest. On the progress page you can see who's at which clue, when they started, and how long they've spent playing. This is useful for determining winners.

You can end a quest manually by picking up all of your clues, or you can wait for your quest to expire. If you pick up your clues (choose Pick Up or Retrieve from the clue's My Things menu), please be aware of any players that may still be in the middle of your quest. You can IM all current players via their avatar names (accessible from the quest's View Progress page).

Tips

• To charge an admission fee to your quest, you can schedule an event in a FunZone and drop the first clue inside, so participants need to pay to enter the zone to read the clue. You can also attach a fee to one or more clues individually, so participants need to pay to read that clue. The payment is automatically credited to your Therebucks account.
• Your Quest Kit's duration determines how long it will remain in the world before it is returned to your inventory. Please note that the duration is calendar-based, meaning a 3-day Quest Kit expires after 3 calendar days.
• The "clock" starts when you drop the first clue. You will get a message about the time remaining when you drop this clue, and you can check how much time is left on your Quest Kit by viewing any of the clues. The "clock" is not running as long as all your clues are still in your inventory.
• If your quest expires, anyone currently in the quest is removed (they will get a message when this happens), and your clues are returned to your inventory. Your clues are not erased.
• To restart your expired quest once it's returned to your inventory, or to start a brand new quest after re-editing your clues, click either Start or Clear Progress. You will then be able to drop your clues again.
• Participant progress from your previous quest will remain viewable when you click View Progress, so if you want to start fresh, click Clear Progress. This will bring up a confirmation message. If you click Yes on the message this will remove all the progress information from your quest.
• You can remove a player from your quest by clicking the "X" button next to his or her name on the progress page. You might do this to make room in your quest for more players, if you find out that someone has stopped playing and doesn't plan on finishing, or if a player is being troublesome.

You can check the mode of your quest anytime by looking in your My Things menu. The three possible quest modes are:

• Editing: In this mode you can change the quest's clue content, whether or not any clues are in-world. If members try to view your quest's clue content, a message will tell them that the quest is being edited.
• Running: After you click Start, your quest will be Running and ready for players. Player progress will appear on a webpage when you click View Progress. You may also edit clues when your quest is Running. If players try to view a clue while you are editing it, a message will tell them that the quest is being edited, just as if it were in Editing mode.
• Inactive: Your quest is in this mode after you've just purchased your Quest Kit, when the quest has expired, after you've picked up all of the clues in-world, or if you click Clear Progress.

(7.30.2004 -- We removed quest kits and card tables from the catalog today, so they will be unavailable for purchase temporarily.  Both items are broken and have been causing numerous problems across our servers. As soon as the items are fixed, we will put them back in the catalog. There is no ETA on this right now, but we will keep you updated.)